Misty Cripps · Vaquita Design
at a cacao farm in Colombia
Accomplishments or lists of jobs don’t tell the story of you. That’s why bios often read poorly. I’ve written many bios for pitch decks and reviewed and edited hundreds more from contributors to San Antonio Review. I think many of us resort to lists of accomplishments or publications because we see our work as the best reflection of ourselves. I know I certainly do. So, what more can I tell you about myself that my work doesn’t already convey?
My work mostly focuses on innovation design. I think about what could be now and into the future, and design strategies and interaction models for that future. Call it 0 -> 1 design, exploratory design, or speculative innovation, but all are esoteric ways of saying that I think a lot about the future.
I’m most interested in text and voice experiences, not because AI makes them trendy, but because they enable us to explore using and working with technology in ways that naturally map to how we work with each other. And I’m also fascinated and horrified by the potential consequences of that.
The biggest concern for design isn’t “Is AI going to replace me because it can create prototypes?” but that we might not be doing enough to develop new interaction models that lead the way. What does it mean to build technology that operates within a humane, equal, and ethical framework, and are we creating interfaces that further or impede that goal?
Right now, I’m working on a couple of different areas, mostly driven by my work at San Antonio Review. Designing for content pipeline management systems has proven to be an interesting workspace, especially for AI-driven discovery systems and explorations of trust and ethics. My work is focused on information retrieval, AI knowledge interfaces, content workflow automation, LLM-assisted discovery, and value-sensitive design and interaction governance. All challenging interaction and product architecture problems.